We here at Fact-Simile are pleased to announce that the launch of Apothecary was a resounding success. Thanks to some great content from our contributors and a great crowd at the Naropa SWP, the first issue is officially out of print!

Never fear, however...in order to help get the word out on this endeavor, we are currently working to get the first (and subsequent) issue online over at www.fact-simile.com We'll keep you posted on this front in the coming days.

And, of course, we will continue to offer the limited edition hard copy pill bottle in the coming weeks for all you lucky Naropa folks.

For those interested in submitting to this unique publication, please send up to 5 pages of original, previously unpublished work to frenchpresspublishing@gmail.com

Friday, June 13, 2008

This is Jen, not Travis. I write on this blog, too. This is my first post. My diction, sentence length, and blogging tone will be different from his. That will be how you know it's me.

Anyhow, Partner-in-crime and I have decided to release, during the Naropa Summer Writing Program, a seasonal journal (a series of four) in theme (it's called Apothecary).

A note on origin:

Travis wanted to call it Viscera and have themes like "The Liver Issue" and "Pancreas." There was even talk of disease. I was driving the car through the mountains during this discussion (we had just passed the Stagestop Inn, nearer to lakes and train tracks) and he was my passenger). When I said "No. I will not theme a journal 'pancreatic cancer,'" he did not argue (my driving strikes fear in his heart, and he had a grease-full belly from hamburgers and macaroni with cheese and we were approaching cliffs and passes). (This is not entirely true, he argued a little and laughed a lot at my abhorrence of his crass suggestions).

I am not as controversial and therefore not as cool as Travis. So, the journal is called Apothecary. You should submit! Please send your submissions to me at frenchpresspublishing@gmail.com.

Also, an unrelated note on videos:

Travis and I purchased a video camera for Fact-Simile event and activity posterity.

If you would like to, you may view videos that I took of the Fact-Simile release party readings and festivities. Caution: I've a shaky hand.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

I am delighted to announce that I've done some research on the subject and am now prepared to share with you my discoveries:

The exclamation point first appeared in print in the late 1400's. It was discovered by the "court-appointed" scribe of Christopher Columbus shortly after landing in The New World and encountering a turkey. Unfortunately, the mark was appropriated by the Spanish Inquisition upon his return and lost to history for some time.

It was subsequently re-discovered centuries later by William Blake in one of his visions.

Originally known as the "note of admiration" it took several incarnations for this controversial punctuation mark to settle into its modern day moniker. Other candidates (some still in use among archaic cultures) included:

gasperbangscreamerstartler

It took considerable lobbying on the part of Benjamin Franklin to effect the final change and guarantee its security during the Continental Congress of 1774. Nevertheless, perhaps due to the known sexual proclivities of its most outspoken proponent, use of the exclamation point was considered "poor taste" for the next 200 years.

[DID YOU KNOW: Joseph McCarthy organized a special task force to secretly remove the exclamation point from Public Libraries nationwide? The effort failed, of course, thanks in no small part to the valiant efforts and cut-throat tactics of the now infamous Librarian Brigade.]

It wasn't until 1970 (after Middle America had been sexually liberated with the help of mind-altering substances) that the exclamation point appeared on the very first factory-produced typewriter.

Previous to this, all known exclamation marks in existence were the property of the very very rich, who made their money renting the artifacts at exorbitant rates to museums and any publishing houses that could afford them. As a result, it was the common practice of newspapermen, poets and other subversives to type a period-backspace-apostrophe.

Imagine that!

The subsequent shift in public perception helped bring the exclamation point from the comic book pages back into the realm of legitimate literature and turned Tom Wolfe, one of the mark's most flagrant "abusers," into an overnight success.

Wolfe's popularity and the resulting demand for exclamation points among the general public eventually forced the US government to sign trade agreements with Spain and several South American countries, importing billions of the marks in exchange for pre-bleached American wheat.

Which brings us, more or less, to today and the age of electronic text. More on this later...

So JenMarie and I drove down to CO Springs yesterday to pick up a 1940's Royal typewriter.

Joy, the woman we bought it from, said it belonged to her mother who used it a total of 3 times over the course of 40 years. Anyway, we got it home and it works great. The type is clean as the day it was made and there's even some ink left in the ribbon, if you can believe that.

I soon discovered, however, one small flaw: There is no exclamation point(!) There is a 1/4 and a 1/2 button and I'm thinking: why? You can make those with a one, a two (or a four) and a slash....and now that we're on the subject: why not 3/4?

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Travis, that's a cash register!" But trust me (we brought it to the doctor and had it tested) it's a typewriter.

JenMarie, being naturally understated, didn't see any of this as a problem. I, on the other hand, am something of a textual exhibitionist and was more than a little disturbed to find my available range of typographic expression so inexplicably limited.

Do you think people in the Olde Days were just less excited about things? I mean...with the Great Depression and all?

Subscribe To

About Fact-Simile Editions

Fact-Simile Editions hit print in 2006 with a small chapbook and we've been going strong ever since. We publish innovative works of poetry, prose and inter-genre monstrosities. Find out more at Fact-Simile.com